Re: More confusion

>
> This basically depends on the implementation. OpenAL Soft will do this
> if the system specifies a 5.1 or 7.1 sound setup. I believe Apple's will
> do it as well. I think Creative's Windows drivers should do it if it's
> either Generic Hardware, or a hardware-specific driver (Generic Software
> is mono or stereo only).
>

So... short answer is OpenAL will do this to the level of capability of
the hardware/driver being used... OK.

I guess under the covers, at a basic level, OpenAL is localizing all these
sound sources and where they should be in 3D space, and then reducing them
down to a "nearest approximation" as provided by the available audio
hardware (or letting the audio hardware reduce it down, I suppose),
whether that's mixed all the way down to a single mono speaker or a full
7.1 surround system... at my level of programming (inside the app), I
shouldn't really care.  I provide OpenAL the "inputs" (sounds to play,
locations and velocities), and it worries about the rest for me.  Nice. :)

>> Assuming I haven't made a colossal error in understanding above...
>>
>> I've been looking at the OpenAL Programmer's Gude and I'm totally lost
>> as
>> to how to configure the Device

(long, detailed very helpful answer clipped)

Short answer... the User configures the device through the driver or
system preferences, and OpenAL uses whatever is "there".  That makes
sense.

> Currently OpenAL doesn't have a way to query or set specific output
> modes. IIRC, the idea was that apps shouldn't care, and it would use all
> configured speakers to output the sounds as best it can. Some systems
> can have some really weird and non-standard setups, and OpenAL wouldn't
> be able to cover all possible configurations. And when you have things
> like HRTF, it can even be a bit misleading (i.e. it's technically only
> stereo, but it can be better than 7.1 as far as sound positioning goes).
>
> Though it may not actually be a bad idea to make an extension for this,
> as long as the setting is treated as a hint, and there's some kind of
> non-determinable "ALC_SYSTEM" setting for when a system-imposed mode is
> used. A companion extension to handle HRTF would be nice to have, too.
> It's something to think about and discuss, anyway.

Again, thanks for the thorough answer!

- Mark (TD)


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